A fast moving front is forecast to affect our area mid afternoon on Saturday.
It might be a good day to plan on getting an early start and getting back to low consequence terrain (or better yet the parking lot) before the storm arrives.
Incoming new snow may increase the sensitivity of the Mar 11th suncrust, which skiers have been triggering daily on steep solar slopes.
Small surface hoar from Mar 7th may also be lingering on Northerly aspects.
Snow at upper elevations will freshen up the loose dry problem in steep terrain.
Rising temps and even rain at low elevations may trigger a loose moist/wet avalanche cycle near valley bottom.
Another pulse of snow will arrive Saturday afternoon.
Tonight: Isolated flurries, Alpine low -6*C, moderate S ridgetop wind
Sat: Snow (12cm - rain at lower elevations?), high -3*C, freezing level (FZL) 1700m, mod SW wind
Sun: Clear periods, low -12*C, high -9*C, FZL 1000m, mod SW wind
Mon: Flurries (5cm), low -9*C, high -6*C, FZL 1500m, mod SW wind
Incoming new snow adds to the 45-70cm of settled snow received since Mar 11th. Solar aspects treeline and below have a series of buried suncrusts (the most recent - Mar 11th and 7th - may sandwich weak/facetted snow between them). On shaded aspects, spotty small surface hoar may be buried down ~70cm (March 7), down 90cm (Feb 26), and >1m (Feb 15).
On Friday, there was a report of a skier involvement in a size 2 slab avalanche in steep terrain in Puff Daddy, and several size 1 slabs in Ursus trees and Rogers Run - all failing on the Mar 11th suncrust.
On Thursday, a group at the top of Rogers run triggered a size 2 slab avalanche (Mar 11th Suncrust) that nearly hit a group below.
